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CAN WE ESCAPE WAR 
WITH JAPAN? 



BY 



GUY MORRISON WALKER 



J UN 1 1921 






O/z November 22nd, 1920, a letter from the Editor of The 
Forum, who had just published an article, entitled: ''Have We 
Lost the Friendship of Japan?" asked me to write for The Forum 
on the subject of American Relations with Japan and China, and 
particularly, to explain why our people were so hostile to Japan 
when our trade with Japan was more than twice as great as our 
trade with China. 

I replied "no'* because any article that I should write would 
be an attempt to explain to the American people why war with 
Japan was impending and how the Japanese were preparing for 
it, and that he would not print such an article as I would write. 

He immediately replied that my letter had been shown to 
General Wood, that the General agreed with me that the time 
for pussyfooting was past, and for me to hurry the article to him 
by Dec. 10th, that he would print it in his January Number and 
''play it big." 

I wrote the article and sent .it .to him on December 8th. On the 
2^th of December, he wrote, stating that it was about one[ 
thousand words too long and would I trust him to shorten it or 
would I do it myself. I sent for the manuscript, shortened it as 
requested, and returned it to him on December 30th. 

The February Number appeared without the article, and I 
wrote him a short note saying that his action satisfied me that I 
was correct in saying that he would not print an article hostile to 
Japan and to please return the manuscript to me without delay as 
I intended to make other use of it. He declared that I was wrong. 
The February Number had a Japanese article which they wanted 
to answer with mine in the March Number. I replied that unless 
I had his positive assurance that the article would be printed in 
the March Number, as stated, that he should return me the manu- 
script at once. He replied stating that the article would posi- 
tively be published in the March Number. 



\ 



The March Number was published without the article. His 
failure to publish It and his refusal to return the manuscript have 
satisfied me that he Is deliberately attempting to suppress the 
publication of the facts It contains. I am, therefore, printing it in 
this manner, because the people of our country need to know 
what It tells. It explains why American soldiers have been flogged 
by Japanese In Siberia, how It happened that an American Naval 
Officer was shot In cold blood by a Japanese sentry In Vladi- 
vostok, and why similar experiences may be expected by other 
Americans In the Far East. 

GUY M. WALKER, 
61 Broadway, New York. 

March 12, 1921. 



CAN WE ESCAPE WAR WITH JAPAN? 

By 
Guy Morrison Walker. 

Why should we Americans show so much interest in and 
friendship for. China and so much feeling against Japan when we 
do only about half as much business with China as we do with 
Japan ? 

The answer to this question involves the whole Eastern 
problem. 

Japan apparently has a much larger trade with us than China 
because Japan has, by force of arms, crowded herself between us 
and our Chinese customers. Japan is compelling us to do business 
with China through her and has compelled China to do business 
with us through her. Both the United States and China have been 
and are compelled to pay an enormous profit to the Japanese 
middleman for no service. 

Over a year ago I asked the Department of Commerce to fur- 
nish me a statement of the amount of bean oil imported into the 
United States and from where it came. The Government report 
showed that nine-tenths of the bean oil imported into the United 
States had its origin in what our Department of Commerce desig- 
nated as "Japanese-China." I then asked what part of China was 
officially known as "Japanese-China." The Department rephed 
that it was Manchuria and the Province of Kwantung, which is 
tributary to Port Arthur. 

One of the largest importers of bean oil in America did not even 
know that it w^as a Chinese product. He bought it from Japanese 
dealers and supposed, of course, it originated in Japan. The truth 
is, the Japanese do not even raise the beans from which bean oil 
is made. Every bit of this bean oil that is bought by Americans 
from Japanese dealers is produced in China. The Chinese pro- 
ducers have been compelled by Japanese armed forces, by Japanese 
control of Chinese railways through the territory in which the 



X 



bean oil is produced and b}^ Japanese control of steamship trans- 
portation in the Pacific, to sell their products to Japanese dealers, 
who double and triple the price and then sell to our American 
consumers. 

What is true in the matter of bean oil is also true in the matter 
of silk. A very large part of the silk that is shipped into this 
country from Japan and supposed to be Japanese silk is, in fact, 
Chinese silk. The chief silk producing province of China is Shan- 
tung, now completely controlled and dominated by the Japanese. 
It is impossible for the Chinese producer to ship his silk out except 
by means of transportation controlled by the Japanese. They have 
compelled the Chinese producer to sell his silk to the Japanese 
middleman at whatever price was offered. The silk has been taken 
to Japan, re-wound, the price doubled or tripled, and then sold to 
the American spinner and weaver. 

The so-called "La Follette Bill," controlling American shipping, 
produced a most astonishing situation on the Pacific, It drove 
everyl American steamship out of business and left the carrying 
trade between the United States and China in the hands of the 
Japanese. In our attempt to dehver goods to Chinese purchasers 
we were compelled to use Japanese ships. The goods were accepted 
by the Japanese steamship companies at San Francisco, or Seattle, 
carried to Kobe, Japan, and there unloaded and left on the docks 
to rust, rot and to spoil, while Japanese agents were busy attempt- 
ing to sell some Japanese substitute to the Chinese merchants who 
were waiting for the delivery of our American goods. American 
and Chinese merchants attempting to ship goods from China to 
the United States were unable to get space in the Japanese steam- 
ships. They were compelled to sell the goods to Japanese mer- 
chants and let them make the profit on the transaction. 

The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai passed a 
series of resolutions not long ago calhng attention to the fact that, 
although they offered the Japanese steamship companies high pre- 
miums over the quoted rates, they were unable to get any space 
in the Japanese ships. 



Our trade with China appears much smaller than it really is, 
because American manufacturers have found it was impossible to 
get their stuff delivered in China except by using Japanese firms 
as distributors. Much of what appears to be sold by the United 
States to Japan is really taken to Japanese firms only for re-sale 
in China, because they are the ones able to get shipping faciUties 
and to deliver the goods. 

If the American and Chinese merchants were in direct contact 
and had shipping facilities so that this vast volume of trade which 
now appears on the books as Japanese, showed its real origin and 
destination, Japanese commerce would be but a pitiful fraction of 
what it now appears on paper to be. 

When our people learn of the enormous profits that the 
Japanese have been able to squeeze out of us and out of China 
merely for the privilege of doing business with each other through 
her, I am sure that the hot flame of American indignation and 
resentment will demand such a complete change in the methods 
of doing business with the Far East as will cause the complete 
collapse of Japanese shipping, commerce and finance. 

The Japanese have been able to accomplish this by the use 
of their military force to dominate the sources of production of 
the East while their propaganda has deceived and kept quiet the 
rest of the world. 

You must first understand that the Japanese are not producers. 
Japanese civihzation is based on the feudal idea that the nobility 
and the military castes are to govern the world and that the rest 
of the population exists for the purpose of supporting the nobihty 
and the mihtarists. 

The Japanese are quite certain of their mission; just as certain 
as were the Germans. In a recent address, Baron Inouj^e declared: 
"The mission of Japan is to unify the world. By the unification 
of the world I mean Japan's conquest of other peoples by means 
of her culture." 

This sounds almost as if it had been uttered by the German 
Kaiser ! 



6 ^ 

The Tokyo "Mainichi" recently said: "Japan is confident mat 
she is superior to any country on the face of the globe. She must 
go forward, influence, convert and conquer the world." 

The "Niroku" recently said editorially: "The world war has 
brought about a change in the world's thought, but it is unthinkable 
that the nationahsm of Japan fostered during the last thirty cen- 
turies, should be affected. Japanese nationalism will assimilate 
the new and build up a still stronger nationalism. GONFUGINISM 
HAS BEEN IMPROVED UPON AT THE HANDS OF qS JAP- 
ANESE AND WE ARE NOW ALSO REFINING GHRISTIANITY!" 

It is necessary to get this opinion, that the Japanese hold of 
themselves, their culture and their nationalism, to understand that 
their clamor for admission to white countries, their insistence upon 
the right of land ownership, their cry against discrimination on 
account of their color, is all because the present discrimination and 
anti-Japanese legislation in Australia, Ganada and Galifornia pre- 
vents them from carrying out their scheme of spreading Japanese 
culture throughout the world. 

Among themselves they do not attempt to conceal the method 
by which this culture is to be spread. One of their ministers re- 
cently said: "While British and American diplomacy is backed by 
capital, Japanese diplomacy is backed by arms." 

The seizure of Formosa, the annexation of Korea, the attempted 
colonization of Gahfornia, the miUtary penetration of Manchuria 
in violation of Japan's treaty obligations to our United States, the 
seizure of Shantung, and now the invasion of Siberia, are all part 
of a definite plan for the conquest of the world for Japanese culture. 

The only real obstacle that has stood and still stands in the way 
of Japan's plans is the attitude of the United States, which over 
twenty years ago demanded and secured a pledge, not only of the 
territorial integrity of Ghina but of an "Open Door" to Ghina's 
commerce, from the Powers of Europe and from Japan. 

When the World War was at its bitterest point for the Allies, 
Japan thought she saw an opportunity to still further extend Jap- 
anese culture over Ghina, and presented the now infamous "Twenty- 



one Demands" to the Chinese Government demanding that they 
be kept secret from all other foreign Powers. But the demands 
leaked out and our Government served notice on Japan that she 
would recognize no pledges secured by Japan from China under 
the then existing conditions and w^ould not countenance or permit 
anything that tended to close the '*Open Door" which Japan herseli 
has pledged to us. 

At this time the Japanese Ambassador to our United States was 
one Sato. Mr. Sato was educated in America. He graduated from 
the same Middle-West college of which I am, myself, an alumnus. 
Suddenly Sato was recalled and Baron Ishii was sent to the United 
States to negotiate what has since been known as the "Lansing- 
Ishii Agreement." 

A Japanese friend, close to the Premier, told me that Sato had 
been recalled because his work at Washington had been unsatis- 
factory to the Japanese Government. Sato had been instructed by 
his Government to make representations to our State Department 
that he knew to be untrue. He rephed that he was ready to do all 
that a diplomat should do but that he refused to make false rep- 
resentations. 

"On account of Sato's attitude," my Japanese friend said, "it 
became necessary to recall him and to send Ishii to the United 
States for the purpose of making to the American State Depart- 
ment the false representations that Sato refused to make." 

At the very time that Baron Ishii was making these false rep- 
resentations to our State Department, Mr. Yamoto was telling the 
Japanese people that England and America must allow Japan to 
pursue her economic and commercial policy in China. 

While Ishii was agreeing to Secretary Lansing's demand that 
Japan claim no position in China ahead of any others, Mr. Yamoto 
was telling the Japanese people that the United States and Great 
Britain should not be permitted to secure concessions from China 
because the Japanese "must be supreme in China." 

The action of our Government in sending a note to China in 
regard to her internal conditions in the summer of 1917 wrought 



8 

up the Japanese Government and the Japanese people to a degree 
of indignation that exceeded that which followed Secretary Knox's 
suggestion of the neutralization of Chinese railways. Japanese 
officials and Japanese papers vied with each other in proclaiming 
Japanese sovereignty over China and condemning the United States 
Government for communicating with the Chinese Government di- 
rectly and not through the medium of Japan. 

Dr. Torn, a prominent official, insisted that Japan should 
compel the Allies to allow her to deal alone with every Oriental 
affair in the future. 

At the time of the Armistice the Japanese Government first 
insisted on its right to represent China at the Peace Conference, 
and then when Chinese delegates had been appointed at the 
request of President Wilson, the Japanese Government de- 
manded of the Chinese Government that its delegates be in- 
structed to communicate with the Peace Conference only through 
the Japanese delegation. 

Prince Kinouye, the spokesman for the Imperial Family and 
the chief Japanese delegate to the Peace Conference, declared 
that: "Japan will not stand for an Anglo-American Peace. The 
British and American programme" he claimed "was for the 
maintenance of the present condition, but that Japan, like Ger- 
many, had found that England and France had already seized 
most of the world for their Colonies, and that Japan like Ger- 
many found this a menace to her right of expansion." He said 
that: "Germany was right in attempting to destroy the present 
status and that in spite of the fact that Germany had failed that 
Japan is in the same position that Germany was and proposes 
the destruction of the present status." 

This statement was made since Peace and shows the purpose 
on the part of the military clan of Japan to attempt in the East 
what Germany failed to accomplish in Europe. 

While propagandists have been assuring our people of Japan's 
friendship for the United States, Japanese statesmen have filled 



9 

the native press with the bitterest denunciations of America and 
Americans. 

Doctor Honda, a product of Methodist Mission Schools in 
Japan, has for years denounced Missions and Missionaries, and 
has insisted that the safety of Japan demands the exclusion of 
all Christian missionaries and the suppression of all Christian or 
Missionary activities. 

The uprising in Korea has given a fresh impetus to the anti- 
Christian, anti-Missionary, anti-American propaganda through- 
out Japan. Count Okuma recently denounced the American mis- 
sionaries in Japan and Korea as political agents and spies and 
declared that, "Japan should deport them out of her boundaries." 
The Japanese press has even denounced the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association buildings and the plants of the Young Women's 
Christian Association as houses of assignation, claiming that the 
American women engaged in this Christian work had been seduc- 
ing the Japanese and Cliinese youth for political purposes. 

The Osaka "Mainichi," which is said to have the largest circu- 
lation of any paper in Japan, recently declared that the Inde- 
pendence Movement in Korea was, and the anti-Japanese boycott 
in China had been, instigated by Americans, and said that the 
Japanese Government must adopt more stringent measures in 
dealing with Americans in Korea and must restrict and exclude 
Americans and American activities in Manchuria, Mongolia and 
China. , 

Please pause a moment and appreciate what this proposition 
means. Not only does Japan propose to restrict and exclude 
Americans from Japanese territory but Japan claims the right 
to exclude Americans and to restrict American activities every- 
where within the boundaries of the Chinese Republic, including 
its dependencies of Manchuria and Mongolia!!! 

Twenty years ago, almost two-thirds of all the cotton goods 
from the United States to China went into Manchuria through 
the Port of Newxhwang, today the port of Newchwang is closed 
and hardly a dollar's worth of American goods gets into 



10 

I 

Manchuria. In Manchuria and in Shantung the Japanese have 
seized control not only of the Chinese railways, but of the Chinese 
custom houses and custom service. 

Through this control they admit Japanese goods into this 
territory free of duty while imposing all sorts of duties and 
penalties on American and other foreign goods. They ship 
Japanese goods to their destination promptly while refusing to 
forward American goods, which even if loaded are 'usually 
dumped off at some little way station and thus lost. 

In this territory at least Japan has closed the "Open Door" 
and nailed it shut. The Japanese Government has driven out 
every American merchant, closed the American Missions and 
Schools, and even compelled our Government to recall our Amer- 
ican Consul General, who reported the Japanese breach of faith. 

The Japanese officials control American passports and are 
even demanding Japanese income taxes from American citizens 
doing business in this Chinese territory. They are also exercis- 
ing similar claims in Siberia (Russian terrtory). 

On September 5th, last, the American Congressional Party 
touring the East was addressed by Marquis Okuma in Tokyo. 
The Marquis told the American Congressmen that Japan must 
be given a free hand in Korea and China. He claimed this as a 
Japanese right because Japan had acquiesced in our annexatfon 
of Hawaii and our occupation of the Philippines. 

These are a few of the things that the Imperial Japanese Gov- 
ernment assumes a right to do and is attempting to do. The 
Japanese government has filled the Japanese people with a belief 
that these are their rights and that this is their destiny. 

It is only by realizing that the Japanese government has con- 
vinced the Japanese people of their right to do these impossible 
things, like the restriction of American activities and the ex- 
clusion of Americans from China, Manchuria, Mongolia and 
Siberia, that you can see that the Imperial Japanese Govern- 
ment has placed itself in a position where it must fight to pul 



11 

these preposterous proposals into force and effect or else face 
repudiation and revolution at home. 

The Professor of International Law at the Imperial University 
at Tokyo, recently delivered a lecture on the rights of aliens in 
foreign countries, among other things he said: "The United 
States Government has been guilty of a violation of its treaty 
agreements with Japan in failing to prevent the passage of the 
alien land law of California. Japan does not intend long to en- 
dure this violation of her international rights. Unless the alien 
land law is repealed by California and unless the United States 
Government apologizes to the Japanese Government for its dis- 
crimination against Japanese subjects, the Imperial Governmenl 
will in the near future descend upon the California coast which 
is practically unfortified; within ten days the Imperial Govern- 
ment will land 500,000 Japanese troops and take possession of the 
State of California; having captured California the Imperial 
Japanese Armies will proceed to conquer the rest of the United 
States at their leisure. The Americans are a decadent people, 
without spirit, unmilitary and unwilling to resent insults. The 
American Armies are insignificant in size and the American Navy 
is made up of amateur seamen. The Americans are powerless 
to prevent the Imperial Japanese Government from asserting its 
rights whenever it is ready to assert them." 

In the election just held California voted overwhelmingly to 
extend her anti-Japanese legislation. The result has been that 
the Japanese Government has ordered the English language 
newspapers not to translate or print any articles from the native 
Japanese press on the subject of America, under pain of con- 
fiscation and complete suppression. 

This can only mean that the Japanese Government is now 
engaged in a violent anti-American propaganda in the native 
press and is attempting to suppress that fact from American 
knowledge by forbidding any translations being made or pub- 
lished in the English language. But there is another thing even 
more significant. You wdll all remember how on the eve of 



12 

war, Germany recalled her men from all over the world. Since 
the election in California, 10,000 Japanese who were working on 
California farms have already left California and returned to 
Japan, and every particle of steerage space on e\ery steamship 
sailing from Pacific Ports for weeks to come is taken by Japanese 
men attempting to return to Japan from the United States. In 
addition to this, the force of the Japanese Embassy at Washing- 
ton has been cut down to the lowest possible number by the 
recall of every surplus officer. 

Just before the beginning of the World War I had a long in- 
terview with Marquis Okuma. A Japanese friend who was inti- 
mate with the Marquis and who was assisting me in the investi- 
gation I was then making, reported to the Marquis much of our 
conversation with the result that Okuma sent for me to discuss 
the matters first-hand. The interview was significant because 
Marquis Okuma frankly admitted not only that war between the 
United States and Japan was inevitable but that Japan was even 
then preparing for the war. Our discussion, based as it was 
on the assumption that war was imminent, resolved itself chiefly 
into weighing the relative wealth, power and fighting capacities 
of the two nations as they would affect or determine the outcome. 

He defended the Japanese aggressions on China because 
Japan's ability even to defend herself in case of war depended 
upon Japanese control of the iron ore and coal fields of China, 
which Japan lacked. This was the reason for the money and 
intrigue used by the Japanese Government for the control of the 
Hanyang Iron Works in the heart of China, and of the main- 
tenance of a great Japanese military garrison adjacent to the iron 
works with one of the most powerful wireless stations in the 
world. He admitted that this action on the part of the Japafiese 
Government was in violation of all treaty rights, but declared 
that without control of this plant Japan would be powerless to 
wage war against any nation. 

I called his attention to the fact that Japanese reliance on 
China for coal and iron was extremely hazardous. For in case 



13 

of war transportation would become difficult, if not impossible, 
and that even if transportation was unhampered, that in order 
to get production of iron and coal from these Chinese fields, the 
Japanese Government would have to depend upon the friendly 
attitude of the Chinese people, a thing which he knew they did 
not have. "Besides," I said, "does, Your Excellency, realize that 
the United States leads the world with the production of iron and 
steel? We have a single company in the iron business in America 
that has a greater capital than all the industries and businesses 
of the Japanese Empire combined." "Is that possible!" he ex- 
claimed. "Not only possible, but true," I replied. "And Excel- 
lency, please realize that the annual income of the American 
people is three or four times the entire wealth of the Japanese 
Empire. The United States by only spending one-third of its 
annual income can compel you to spend the entire wealth of 
the Japanese Empire to equal our expenditure. This should 
enable you to appreciate the hopelessness of Japanese success 
in any issue with the United -States." 

"Ah!" he said, "You forget that it does not cost us so much 
to produce in Japan because our wage scale is so much lower 
than is yours in the United States." "Admitted" I said, "But 
wage scales are immaterial in the iron and steel industry in re- 
lation to war. For you of Japan are hopelessly outclassed re- 
gardless of costs and wage scales. The output of the iron and 
steel business in the United States alone is about three times the 
total productive capacity of the whole Japanese Empire in all 
lines combined. Only the ignorant undertake contests which 
disclose to the world their lack of knowledge of the conditions 
under which they are compelled to fight. Peace is not induced 
by deceiving a nation into a belief that they can defeat another 
nation which hopelessly outclasses them. Ignorant of the wealth 
and power of the United States, yau of Japan propose to under- 
take a war to save face, but those of us who know the facts 
realize that such a war would not only result in Japan losing 



14 

face, but would end in the utter and complete exhaustion of the 
Japanese Empire financially and industrially." 

Our interview had lasted two hours and a half, and as I arose 
to leave in spite of his request that I stay longer, he said : 

'"Mr. Walker, in my years of public life a thousand foreigners 
have called on me to go away and boast that they had talked 
with Okuma but you are the first foreigner who has talked to 
me like a man." 

Japan hopes not only to live but to become rich by enslaving 
the Chinese people as she has enslaved the Koreans. She has 
seized the Province of Shantungs — ^first — ^because the Province of 
Shantung is filled with the finest men physically that there are 
in China. Shantung men have always been the backbone of any 
armies organized in China. It has been Japan's desire particu- 
larly to get control over this Province and to organize these 
Shantung men into Japanese armies and to use them not only 
in the further conquest of 'China and Asia, but particularly in 
their attack upon the United States because we stand in the way 
of their conquest of Asia. 

A Senator of the United States, who supports the present 
Wilson Administration, called to discuss the Chinese question. 
Among other things he said: "I am sick and tired of hearing 
the Chinese whine and play the baby. Why, under the sun, 
should they ask for American help ? Why don't they arm them- 
selves and go give the Japanese a licking?" 

"Senator," I replied, "The reason that China does not arm 
herself and protect herself against Japanese aggression is be- 
cause the Administration at Washington, that you are support- 
ing, foolishly, ignorantly and apparently without the slightest 
comprehension of its effect, agreed, at the request of Japan, to 
embargo any and all imports into China of arms or munitions 
of war. Japan requested this under the pretense that the im- 
portation of arms was facilitating civil war between the North 
and the South. But the truth was and is that Japan's request 
for the embargo was for the purpose of preventing the Chinese 



15 

from arming for national defense and to enable the Japanese 
to push their seizure of Chinese territory, their massacre ana 
assassination of Chinese people without fear, because they would 
know that the Chinese were without arms and munitions with 
which to defend themselves." 

The Chinese Government has repeatedly applied to the State 
Department at Washington to have the embargo on arms lifted 
so that they could arm Chinese troops for self-defense; pleading 
particularly the danger of invasion from the Soviet troops in 
Siberia. But the Japanese Government has protested against 
any lifting of the embargo and because of the Japanese protest 
the Administration has refused to comply with the Chinese 
requests. 

Practically the only troops in China that have arms and muni- 
tions now are those that have been organized by and are com- 
manded by Japanese officers. 

Either we must defend China against Japanese aggression or 
we must lift the embargo on arms and munitions and enable 
the Chinese to arm and defend themselves ! 

In preparation for war the Japanese have put so many 
soldiers into the Philippines during the past two years that tne 
Census Bureau has suppressed the census figures because of their 
alarming significance, and for the past year the stores and sup- 
plies for the Japanese Campaign in the Philippines have been 
gathered and are now in warehouse in Hongkong waiting for 
the hour to strike. 

Japan expects to be able to choose her own time to attack us 
because she is firm in her belief that we will not resent her in- 
sults. Why then wait until additional and continual insult shall 
have humiliated us before the world and robbed us of our self- 
respect? 

Why wait until control of Siberia furnishes her with food 
supply and control of the Shantung Province of China enables 
her to command a man power of over 100,000,000, instead of 
50,000,000 as she has now? 



16 

What America should do is to announce that the "Open Door" 
in China which Japan, herself, has agreed to respect and main- 
tain is as definite a part of American policy as is the Monroe Doc- 
trine, and that we, as a nation are as ready to fight for the '"Open 
Door" as we are to prevent the spread of monarchial government 
in this hemisphere. When the world appreciates that we will 
fight as quickly to maintain the "Open Door" in China as we will 
to prevent the extension of European influence in this hemis- 
phere there will be an end of trouble in China and peace in the 
world. 

GUY MORRISON WALKER. 
December 8th, 1920. 



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